UK on the money

English apples are in the spotlight once again and fortunately, this season looks set to be more lucrative than last, with home-grown product entering a strong market. Emma Twyning reports.

As the English apple season gets underway this year, the mood across the industry is buoyant. English product has had a positive start and the nightmarish oversupply situation of last year, which saw southern hemisphere fruit exchanging hands for £1 a box in late November, is fast becoming a distant memory for growers.

“All in all, the season should be much better than last year,” says Paul Mansfield of Kent-based top-fruit growers FW Mansfield & Son. “There’s no overhang of southern hemisphere fruit so we’re coming on to an empty market. Sales will be good and we are going to promote the UK season heavily in October, which will set a trend to get the consumer back focused on UK production.”

According to growers, availability of fruit is much less this season. It is a very different picture than last year when most UK growers made a loss and some of those losses were significant. The troubles were not just felt in the UK either – producers around the world supplying into Europe felt the impact of collapsed prices, and for many this meant extensive grubbing.

Fortunately, explains Adrian Barlow of representative body English Apples & Pears, this was not the reaction of the majority of British growers. “It was really a miracle that there was no grubbing in the UK, which means our growers have faith in the future and are optimistic,” he says. “We do believe that English apples are the finest in the world…We want to encourage more growers to come in and get their relatives to come in, because we believe there’s a big future [for the English apple industry].”

EA&P is getting behind this belief in an even bigger way this year, with a more comprehensive marketing effort. So far, three weeks into the 2006/2007 campaign, Barlow has undertaken a number of radio interviews as well as an appearance on BBC television, and thanks to some careful PR planning, the story of English apples has been picked up relentlessly by the national press.

A useful factor in drumming up interest about the start of the season is the recent trend towards more environment-conscious purchasing habits; consumers becoming more aware about issues such as food miles are starting to value provenance more highly. Barlow says this change in consumer attitude has the potential to give the sector a real boost in the long term. “There’s no question that we have attracted much more publicity than ever before and, importantly, the messages that we have been using have made a greater impact than ever before,” he says. “Food miles and carbon emissions are higher in the minds of the British public and although it might not appear to have had much effect on purchasing decisions to date, there is little doubt that will change as the messages surrounding climate change continue to filter through.”

While there will always be a place for imported fruit, English apples should be on shelves where available, he says. “Imported food has a huge role to play in feeding this nation. We need southern hemisphere apples when European apples are not in season and we want to see growers everywhere flourishing as that means we have a successful industry. But it makes no sense to have non-European product in the European market when there is adequate supply of locally-grown fruit.”

Inevitably, supermarkets have responded to this consumer trend, as is illustrated by the raft of “green” initiatives launched in recent months. And, according to growers, this year they are lending more support to the English apple season than ever before.

“The supermarkets are really getting behind UK fruit,” says Mansfield. “There’s more backing of UK product and they’re giving it quality shelf space. I think, with the changes we are making within our industry in terms of varietal mix, it’s making things much more interesting for UK consumers. This will help overall sales going in the future, providing we move with the market place and change with consumer requirements.”

Some supermarkets have even gone to the extent of enlisting outside agencies to independently audit their in-store layout, and Barlow says this has gone some way to solving the discrepancy between the good intentions of head office in correctly promoting English apples, and the often lacklustre practises seen on the shop floor that supermarkets are so often criticised for. “They recognised this and realised they needed to do something about it,” he says.

The tenacious efforts of the industry, headed up by the EA&P team, seem to be paying off. The sheer amount of publicity, coupled with the strong market position and the retail backing has all culminated in some good prices for early varieties, and growers are hopeful that this will continue throughout the season. However, they need to be viewed in the context of last year’s often abysmal prices. What is pleasing for growers is that, contrary to popular opinion, fairer prices have not hampered demand for English apples this year. In fact, the high demand has even caused concerns that growers may not be able to fulfil orders. “I was really concerned that the demand on the English industry would be so great because we’ve had all this publicity, [and] that the industry might struggle to meet overall demand,” he says. “The last thing we want is not to be able to meet the demand from all our customers.” However, the situation has now improved and the support from the multiples must not be underestimated, with many chains taking a more sensitive approach to supply, he says. “Discussions are taking place to make sure that demand is met in store and there’s close liaison to achieve this and that’s excellent. It’s great that there’s such a demand for English apples.

“Because of this, supermarkets have to be careful that what they are selling is from the early sites and I would absolutely endorse that. It’s absolutely essential that they ensure that products are eating really well before they put them in store.”

Andrew Boxall, a top-fruit grower supplying Asda, has been at the forefront of the early demand, selling much of his main crop, Cox, in the first two weeks of the season’s start. Favourable conditions on his farm have meant that this year, Cox is in good supply. “We’ve got a bumper crop of Cox,” he says. “I’ve actually sold two thirds of the crop already because I was the sole supplier for two weeks to Asda.”

Boxall says he would describe 2006 as a “vintage year” for eating quality, which should increase demand further still. “It just needs to be a vintage year for prices, and so far it’s a lot better than last year,” he says.

Mansfield, who is producing 9,000 tonnes of apples and 2,500t of pears this year, is also pleased with the quality of this year’s crop, reporting excellent sugar levels which were helped by the warm July temperatures. The rains in August – 120ml at his farm – will also help with storability and the stress levels in trees.

He says the company is focusing on improving its variety mix, and 100 hectares of production were pulled out last year in order to do this. “Ten years ago, Cox made up two thirds of production and next year it’s 25 per cent of our overall apple harvest. We’re still growing more Cox than we did, but the overall mix of varieties has changed and we’ve gone into Braeburn and Gala, and now Jazz and Empire,” he says. “What it’s doing is spreading the picking, and filling the UK fruit basket up.

“We’ve got more varieties for the consumer and that’s what we’ve got to do to last at the end of the day. And we will carry on doing that,” he says.

While most varieties are of a high standard this year, he says Empire and Jazz, which will be available in significant commercial volumes next year, are looking excellent. “We are very excited about our Jazz plantation this season, and it’s looking very good – spectacular in actual fact. We’re really looking forward to next year’s first commercial production,” he says. Going forward, Mansfield is optimistic for the English apple industry over the coming years. “I can see it looking very good for the future; I think it will be very interesting to see the results of the young plants that have gone through the UK in the last four-five years,” he says.

Trialling new varieties and learning how to grow them under UK conditions, improving storage facilities and technology and continuously improving yields and quality are an imperative part of keeping the UK at the forefront of the top-fruit industry. And while getting fair returns may be important to growers on an immediate level, in terms of covering production costs, they also have a huge bearing on the future of the industry, says Barlow. “If growers are not making good profits to reinvest for the future, it throws into question the product in terms of volumes and quality. If you do not renew orchards you begin to see quality regress, so it’s very important that these orchard renewals are taking place on a regular basis.”

According to growers, varietal selection has enjoyed a positive evolution in recent years, a process that growers are continuing to focus on. Out of 3,000 English varieties, only 30-40 actually suit modern palates and can produce consistent volumes, and only half of those are grown commercially. Barlow predicts an increase in most of these varieties, with Gala reaching 30,000t and Braeburn 20,000t in five years time.

“Although people in Britain look back with nostalgia on varieties of yester year, the reality is growers are taking up varieties that yield well, that consumers are looking for and give them the chance to improve volumes and get good grade outs,” he says, adding that the rising cost of utilities against deflated prices is not sustainable. “What we must do is make sure that prices which are charged are going to provide apples to consumers at prices which represent good value for money but also give sufficient returns to everyone in the supply chain to provide reasonable profits for reinvestment. So far [the season’s gone] really well, making it into a much stronger market and we have the opportunity to realise reasonable prices and reasonable returns.